Even though it was very heavy as trip/holiday reading I am glad I brought it along. The wrting of Menck is very colourful and derailed and the description of Marco Polos life in China has been very interesting. Again, I am not sure if the target group teenagers will feel the same. But I am definitely going to get a non-fiction version of Polos travels because this one got me jooked.

Found this on Instagram and was laughing hard because it reminds me of my holiday reading this year. But I will proof the artist Ellis Rosen wrong. 💪💪💪

The last 300 pages… 🙈 Again, I think for teenagers that‘s quite discouraging.

Passing over from the adventures of young Marco Polo in Venice to his travels and enjoying the sun. 🤩🤩🤩

After reading two Nancy Drews I needed a break and started this huge 700 page brick for teenagers. There are actually two books in it: the adventures and the travels. I just finished the first, adventure part which I liked very much - especially the skillful writing of Meinck. But I am not sure if a teenager would enjoy it that much like I did. Particularly the number of pages might be discouraging.

Die Familien gehören sich nicht mehr selbst; das Meer teilt sie. Auf der einen Seite stehen Frau und Kinder, auf der anderen, unsichtbaren, handelt der Mann mit Gold, Diamanten, Fellen, Ziegenhäuten, Getreide und Teppichen, Ambra und Moschus, Jagdfalken und Gewürzen. Jeder Jahr opfert der Doge dem Meer einen goldenen Ring, vermöhlt Venedig mit dem Meer. Ein heidnischer, teuflischer Brauch!

I liked this one more than the other ones so far. Even though there have been subplots again, this time it made more sense how they ended up being entangled with each other. Ned doesn‘t feel that needy like in the previous story. But I found the ending quite abrupt.

Enjoying the summer that finally arrived in Switzerland - enjoying it with the next Nancy Drew mystery.

I am torn between the interesting storyline with the exploding house and the mail fraud subplot that was completely unnecessary. It seems like the authors want to make sure the reader understands that Nancy is able to solve every crime. I liked Bess and George being around for all the investigating becoming more important. Well, and from my point of view Ned tries to hard. 🙈

Trying to get back on track with my Nancy Drew reading. The last months of this school year have been pretty difficult for me, so I‘m behind three murder mysteries now. 🙈

Finished listening to another Agatha Christie murder mystery. I did not realize that this one was her first one, I have to make a list now because I am starting to get confused.
I really liked this one because - of course - I didn‘t see the twist coming. 🤦‍♀️

This brand new book focusses on the huge impression the bust of Nofretete (Nefertiti) left in culture and media worldwide and why. Of course the dicovery is metioned as well. I was very excited about it and it definitely is very fascinating.

On my way to Germany now. Fortunately the Deutsche Bahn does have problems with the punctuality again. My train is delayed that much that I will be able to finish this one. 😂🙈😂

This Easter break I was visiting Iceland again and presumably for the last time now (5 times are enough I think). And on one the last days I bought Stolen Lives in the Skogar museum because it sounded very interesting. And I have to admit I read through it in one go. It gave an overview on how the attack happened, how the kidnapped tried to mutiny and how they ended up in Algiers. Overall a very absorbing true story.

The moment of checking the footnotes and realizing that there is a twin to your book and you definitely have to buy it, but the book is only available in Iceland and the delivery would cost 30€ (more than the book itself). Sudden shock, disappointment and disbelief. 🤯😡🤬🤯
Fortunately, a friend of mine lives in Iceland and agreed to get for me. 🥳

Enjoying 30 minutes of sun in this Swiss summer with a rather difficult but interesting topic - the capture of Vestmannaeyjar people by Algerian pirates in 1627.

Last week of my daily 2 hour commute to and from work - summer break finally arrived. But so I was able to listen to all three of Dürrenmatt‘s murder mysteries. The last one was „Suspicion“. The cold description of the hospital where inspector Bärlach suspects a Nazi doctor made me cringe. Abd what stroke me weird was that Dürrenmatt obviously changed his thinking about typical murder mysteries (see post about The Pledge) because…

Listening to the second Dürrenmatt murder mystery, the first one with Kommisär Bärlach. I already read it last year and decided to read it with my class, so this is a nice way to recise it. ?

After I went to the guiddd tour about Dürrenmatt, I started to listen to The Pledge. It started well off with the meta level of the story being told to the author. I thought ghe ending was quite unsatisfactory, but then I read the background story of Dürrenmatt being disappointed about the endings of typical detective stories. This helped me to appriciate the ending more.

I went to a guided tour recently. It was about the life and the literary works a Friedrich Dürrenmatt - a famous Swiss author. It was not only a guided tour, but there have been parts with actors acting/reading out his life as well. This was the most interesting tour I went to. ???

So, after weeks of piles of work at school, I am finally able to read again. And the first one I finished was the third Miss Merkel murder mystery. I have to admit they get funnier and funnier with every new publication. The only thing I didn‘t like was the self-reference of the author Safier. He never did that in the two other ones and should definitely not resume it in the next one.

It‘s funny when you accidently stumble upon an interview ob the book you‘ve read recently. Brought some funny insights. 😊

I wss reading the new Miss Merkel mystery on the way back from Iceland in April. I could not add the blurb because I could not find it on Litsy yet.
It was the first time I realized that those plastic things are there to hold your tablet. 🙈

It‘s 8 years now! 💪💪💪

I‘m torn between Agatha Christie novels placed in small English villages or the ones with the settings at world heritages sites. I loved this one because the murder happened at Petra. 🏛️

Have been using this one for years now. I still don‘t like the structure - alphabetically instead of regionally. But I am too lazy and stingy to get another one. Right now I am enjoying my morning coffee with the nice view of the Ascona promenade - good travel guide or not. 🤪

I had to bail it after I went to another two chapters. This is definitely not a good book for an audiobook. I could not follow half of the thoughts because a zillion of names have been mentioned. I am pretty sure in ghe printed version there‘s a deawing of a family tree or something, but to follow the branches of a family without the possibility to see it does not work. And then this weird computerized voice. Not my thing. 🤦‍♀️

This ebook sounded very interesting but the recording sounds like an automatic computer reading out the text. I am not sure if I will be able to listen to it for another 15 hours even though I am really interested in the topic. It is just too difficult to listen to. 🙈

Back to work abd back to the daily commute, so I was able to finish this one this week. In general, I enjoy the Poirot novels with Ariadne Oliver as his sidekick, she is a funny and quirky character. With this novel I liked the notion of a murder happening directly under Poirot‘s nose. 🥸

Found this little free library next to the monastary Mariastein in Switzerland. Actually there has been a lot of theological literature in it. Unfortunately, that‘s nothing for me. 🙈

I have read the two easy versions for students. Unfortunately, the Macmillan one is not available in Switzerland anymore. I had to use the BlackCat one. Both of them do have tasks for the students to solve, but the BlackCat ones disrupt the flow of reading because the task are before and after thr chapters. Sometimes I could not find the novel‘s text anymore between. 🤦‍♀️

Of course my students have to work on tasks why reading The Houns of the Baskervilles - especially because it is the easy version of Black at. 💪

Finished another audiobook while driving through Iceland. I was thinking that this Christie murder mystery is a very psycological one which I didn‘t expect. Of course I did not see the turn coming.

Even though this time there weren‘t two narratives which somehow (strangely) are combined in the end, but the happy go lucky life of Nancy & her friends becomes more apparent. The structure & narratives of the series so far are somewhat the same & become predictable. Even the last two titles almost seem the same. But again, the series was written for teenagers, not scrutinizing adults.

You just did! In the book 5 of the series! At Shadow Ranch! 🙈

Me trying to keep up with my reading while travelling Iceland in this weird winterlike spring. Hopefully, I will be prepared for today‘s discussion. 💪💪💪
#nancydrewbr @Librarybelle

We finished listening to this one while driving through Iceland today. Since I am a language teacher I found the chapters about the history of slang words (e.g. cunt) very interesting. In general the book gives a more funny and interesting overview rather based on exciting incidents than on science but that is completely fine.

Even though I liked this collection of short stories or excerpts of novels of Icelandic authors very mucc, I think the title and the description are a little bit misleading. I assumed it would be short stories taking place in Iceland written by Icelandic authors portaying the Icelandic way of life. But half of them are placed somewhere else. I didn‘t like those very much, but they still display the diversity of Icelandic authors.

Me preparing for the upcoming yearly holiday in Iceland with a nice colection of Icelandic stories. Currently it is snowing like hell there, so I am enjoying the nice weather here. 😊

This is an interesting dystopian storie. In am undefined future big cities like New York have been closed because they are inhabitable due to air pollution and overpopulation. Now they are a summer holiday attraction. But what happens when the doors close at the end of the summer? Something the 16 year okd Ron is going to find out the hard way.
Definitely a dystopian future that‘s not so far in the future anymore. The story was published in 1978.

Today I went to a tour of the cabinet of sentimental trivial literature in Solothurn (I live nearby). I opens once a month only and is somewhat a insider. I don‘t think it gets visited mich even though it is a nice small museum displaying the literature for the working class in the 19th century. It was very interesting and I realized I inherited some of the mentioned books from my grandparents. 😊

On my way back from the theatre, killing time in the train by reading. The person next to me reads a printed book as well instead of checking the phone. Life is good. 😊

I got this gem in a little free library and went through it in two days even though my work week is pretty heavy and normally I am not able to read after work. It is a nice collection of Poirot stories - some shorter, some longer. Of course the style is an easy one that‘s why the reading went so smoothly but I really enjoyed it.

Definitely on your side, Mr Poirot! 🤣

I was fed up after having to read The Little Prince in school years ago. I could never understand the hype about that story. So I was pretty biased when coming across another of de Saint-Exupery‘s stories. I was positivly surprised. Night Flight is written as light as a feather - or the wind carried by the wind.

Already, beneath him, through the golden evening, the shadowed hills had dug their furrows and the plains grew luminous with long-enduring light. For in these lands the ground gives gives off this golden glow persistently, just as, even when ghe winter goes, the whiteness of the snow persists.
What a first paragraph! 😮

I didn‘t like this student‘s version much because it left out the whole voodoo narrative. i am not sure if it was particularly thrilling for my students. But then the original is so full of stereotypes and degrading language at least this was not given in this version.

I am currently reading four different novels with four different classes. Of course they are the students versions which are easier and have less different narratives but I get mixed up a lot - especially when the lessons are one after another. Last time it told the students The Hound of the Baskervilles was written by Ian Fleming. 🙈

Finally finished this one with my own class of 8th graders this week. Most of the boys wanted to read it because they have watched the movie. They thought it would be easy read, but they forgot Mrs Wolff is their teacher. Of course I had them tackle different problems while reading, not only consuming it. We‘ll see if it was worth it.

I finished reading the easy version of Romeo & Juliet with my 8th grade students. Even though the text was changed a lot they did not catch some parts of the the story. And I did not like the easy version because some of the best known quotes of this play have been changed. I prefer the original.